In the prior art, operators of various navigable vehicles (such as aircraft pilots, for example) relied heavily on printed maps and single unit instrumentation to determine a vehicle's coordinate location relative to some reference point. One problem with printed maps, however, is that printed maps do not provide an accurate representation of coordinate location on the earth due to the curvature of the earth. Thus, an airplane pilot who relied on printed maps to determine location knew or should have known that any location determined from the printed maps was only an approximation and not an accurate representation of the vehicle's coordinate location. At one time the maps in use were generally better than the available navigation accuracy, but, printed charts required a concentrated effort to use.
As technology advanced, so did the tools by which the pilots determined their location. One technology, for example, is the very high omnirange (VOR) system, which includes a collection of navigation beacons or lights positioned on the ground which would allow pilots to position themselves relative to each beacon. Other tools, such as global positioning satellite systems, became available to also assist pilots in navigation, and were integrated into the instrumentation of the vehicle's navigational system. Additional tools include enhanced ground proximity warning systems (EGPWS), which is a radar-based tool combined with a database of terrain that keeps track of the location of an airplane and the ground terrain relative to each other, and further, provides an audible warning of when the airplane is close to the ground and thus, close to impact. The EGPWS would also briefly display an obstacle threat (such as a upcoming mountain) as a threat warning, but in some cases, it did not provide sufficient time to allow the vehicle's operator to guide the vehicle in a safer direction.
Another tool which has been implemented in some airplanes is known as the flight management system (FMS), which included a textual display unit which displayed limited information corresponding to navigational parameters of concern by the vehicle's operator (such as airport location, navigation aids and navigation aids). The FMS was deficient because it was not designed to display other information which may be important to the safety of the vehicle's occupants and operation of the vehicle, such as weather data including areas of known wind shear, icing, wind speed, wind direction and like data. Further, the FMS system is manually intensive and slow, requiring the vehicle's operator to input commands into an on-board keyboard, having a processor execute the commands and then slowly refreshing the FMS display screen.
Until the present invention, the prior art was void of a method or apparatus for displaying real time navigational information on a single, display unit within a vehicle having a navigational system, the information generated from a number of information sources stored in at least one database (including information relating to environmental terrain data, obstacle data, adjacent vehicle data, special use airspace data, political boundaries, state boundary lines, geographic features, navigation aids, airport information data, airway and intersection data, weather data, cultural data, man-made object data, air traffic data, wind data and flight plan data). One reason that such a tool did not exist was because computing power was not sufficiently advanced to handle the large amount of calculations required, and further, because the cost of memory available to store and manipulate significant amounts of data was expensive. Moreover, some information (such as, for example, accurate terrain and geographic data) did not exist. The present invention solves this gap in prior art technology by providing a method and an apparatus for displaying real time information which, in one preferred embodiment, is coupled to a vehicle's navigation system.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for integration with a vehicle's navigation system, the method and tool displaying continuous information relating to environmental terrain, potential obstacles in the path of the vehicle, nearby vehicles, special use airspace, political and state boundary lines, geographic features such as rivers and lakes, navigation aids, airports and information relating to airports, airways and intersections, weather, cultural features such as highways, cities and high-tower lines or towers, proposed flight paths, wind direction and speed, drift down area and air traffic information.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a method for displaying continuous information relating to environmental terrain, potential obstacles in the path of the vehicle, nearby vehicles, special use airspace, political and state boundary lines, geographic features such as rivers and lakes, navigation aids, airports and information relating to airports, airways and intersections, weather, cultural features such as highways, cities and high-tower lines or towers, a proposed flight path, wind direction and speed, drift down area and air traffic information on a single navigational display unit.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus which communicates with both a vehicle's onboard navigational system and external offboard information sources, integrates the information from the system and external sources, and then continuously displays selected information of concern by the vehicle's operator on a single display unit.